Fr. Drinan’s War on Women

Shouldn’t feminists be rushing to the side of Slate columnist Emily Yoffe after she mustered up the courage to report that the late Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan sexually assaulted her? As far as I can tell, few have. Perhaps they are hesitating since Drinan, like the lunging Ted Kennedy, “was right on the issues.” In 2007, Eleanor Smeal eulogized Drinan in the pages of Ms. as a “stalwart champion for women.” Smeal thanked him for supporting ERA and abortion rights. From Bill Clinton to Ted Kennedy to John Edwards to DSK to Fr. Drinan, proud proponents of “women’s rights” have compiled a voluminous record of allegedly degrading them. Perhaps Drinan felt that Yoffe, as a beneficiary of his “progressive” politics, owed him her submission. He correctly assumed that Yoffe wouldn’t publicize the incident. As she notes, she “admired” him and didn’t want trouble. Drinan’s family is complaining about the timing of Yoffe’s charge, but her desire not to dim the star of a pro-abortion Jesuit useful to the Dems partly explains it.